Development Discourse and Global History The manner in which people have been talking and writing about ‘development’ and the rules according to which they have done so have evolved over time. Development Discourse and Global History uses the archaeological and genea­ logical methods of Michel Foucault to trace the origins of development discourse back to late colonialism and notes the significant discontinuities that led to the establishment of a new discourse and its accompanying industry. This book goes on to describe the contestations, appropriations and transformations of the con­ cept. It shows how some of the trends in development discourse since the crisis of the 1980s – the emphasis on participation and ownership, sustainable devel­ opment and free markets – are incompatible with the original rules and thus lead to serious contradictions. The Eurocentric, authoritarian and depoliticiz­ ing elements in development discourse are uncovered, whilst still recognizing its progressive appropriations. The author concludes by analysing the old and new features of development discourse which can be found in the debate on Sustain­ able Development Goals and discussing the contribution of discourse analysis to development studies. This book is aimed at researchers and students in development studies, global history and discourse analysis as well as an interdisciplinary audience from inter­ national relations, political science, sociology, geography, anthropology, language and literary studies. Aram Ziai is a Heisenberg-Professor of the German Research Foundation (DFG) for Development and Postcolonial Studies at the University of Kassel, Germany. He previously taught at the Institute for International Development (IE) at Vienna University. Development Discourse and Global History From colonialism to the sustainable development goals Aram Ziai The open access version of this title was supported by the Global Partnership Network (GPN), a project of the programme “exceed – Higher Education Excellence in Development Cooperation” funded by the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD) and the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ). First published 2016 by Routledge 2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN and by Routledge 711 Third Avenue, New York, NY 10017 Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business © 2016 Aram Ziai The right of Aram Ziai to be identified as author of this work has been asserted by him in accordance with sections 77 and 78 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988. The Open Access version of this book, available at www.taylorfrancis. com, has been made available under a Creative Commons Attribution-Non Commercial-No Derivatives 4.0 license. Trademark notice: Product or corporate names may be trademarks or registered trademarks, and are used only for identification and explanation without intent to infringe. British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Ziai, Aram, author. Development discourse and global history : from colonialism to the sustainable development goals / Aram Ziai. pages cm 1. Economic development—Philosophy. 2. Development economics— Philosophy. 3. Sustainable development—Philosophy. I. Title. HD75.Z53 2016 338.9001'4—dc23 2015010396 ISBN: 978-1-138-80325-1 (hbk) ISBN: 978-1-315-75378-2 (ebk) Typeset in Goudy by Apex CoVantage, LLC Contents Acknowledgements vii 1 Introduction: the discourse of ‘development’ 1 PART I Theory 5 2 Poststructuralism, discourse and power 7 PART II Archaeology 25 3 From ‘civilising mission’ to ‘development’ 27 4 An archaeology of development knowledge 38 5 The concept of ‘development’ and why it should be abandoned 54 6 Development discourse: appropriation and tactical polyvalence 70 PART III Genealogy 87 7 The transformation of development discourse: participation, sustainability, heterogeneity 89 8 From ‘development’ to ‘globalisation’ 100 9 World Bank discourse and poverty reduction 125 10 ‘Development’: projects, power and a poststructuralist perspective 139 vi Contents 11 Millennium Development Goals: back to the future? 155 12 Justice, not development: Sen and the hegemonic framework for ameliorating global inequality 173 13 Migration management as development aid? The IOM and the international migration and development initiative 183 14 The post-2015 agenda and the Sustainable Development Goals: the persistence of development discourse 194 PART IV Conclusion 209 15 Conclusion: the contribution of discourse analysis to development studies 211 Index 237 Acknowledgements Various chapters have already been published in earlier versions and they have all been revised for this volume. I acknowledge the kind permission of the publishers and copyright holders for the following texts: Chapter 2 has appeared in Globale Strukturpolitik? Die Nord-Süd Politik der BRD und das Dispositiv der Entwicklung im Zeitalter der Globalisierung (Münster: Westfälisches Dampfboot 2007), 14–37. Chapter 3 has appeared as ‘Imperiale Repräsentationen. Vom kolonialen zum Entwicklungsdiskurs’ in Blätter des iz3w Nr. 276, 15–18. Chapter 5 appeared in 2013 in Development in Practice 23(1), 123–136. Chapter 6 is based on ‘Negotiat­ ing ‘Development’: Constitution, Appropriation and Contestation’ which will appear in: Dhawan, Nikita/Fink, Elisabeth/Leinius, Johanna/Mageza-Barthel, Rirhandu (eds.) 2015: Negotiating Normativity. Postcolonial Appropriations, Contes­ tations and Transformations. A version of chapter 7 appeared in 2014 as ‘Progress­ ing towards incoherence: Development discourse since the 1980s’ in: Momentum Quarterly 3(1), 3–14. Chapter 8 appeared in 2010 as ‘From development discourse to the discourse of globalisation. Changing forms of knowledge about change and their political repercussions’ in: Sociologus 1/2010, 41–70. Chapter 10 appeared in 2009 as ‘Development: Projects, Power, and a Poststructuralist Perspective’ in: Alternatives – Local, Global, Political 34(2), 183–202. Chapter 11 appeared in 2011 as ‘Millennium Development Goals: Back to the Future?’ in Third World Quarterly 32(1), 27–43. Chapter 12 appeared in 2014 as ‘Justice, not develop­ ment: Sen and the hegemonic framework for ameliorating global inequality’ in Global Justice: Theory, Practice, Rhetoric 7(1), 28–38. A downsized version of chapter 15 appeared as a Working Paper of the Department of Development and Postcolonial Studies at the University of Kassel. Chapters 1, 4, 6, 9, 13 and 14 have not been published before. I was writing this book while on a Heisenberg-grant and a Heisenberg-professorship funded by the DFG and am very grateful for that, also to those who supported the application (Christoph Scherrer, Uta Ruppert and Cord Jakobeit) and those who made sure the professorship for Development and Postcolonial Studies was established at the University of Kassel (Christoph!). A ‘thank you’ also goes to Khanam Virjee, Bethany Wright and Margaret Farrelly at Routledge and the anonymous reviewers. Their work also made this book become real. The same holds true for Silke who looks after the kids half of the time. viii Acknowledgements I would like to thank all my students as well as my wonderful colleagues in various places from whom I have learnt a lot during the past decade: Christoph Scherrer, Sonja Buckel and the Hegemony Colloquium and many others and especially Daniel Bendix in Kassel; Gerald Hödl, Karin Fischer, Uli Brand and the others from IE in Vienna; Joe Hill, Conrad Schetter, Katja Mielke and the others from ZEF in Bonn; Chris Methmann and Jörg Meyer in Hamburg; Chan­ dra Danielzik and Kwesi Aikins in Berlin; Sally Matthews in Grahamstown; Akosua Adomako Ampofo and Nana Akua Anyidoho in Accra; Sara Mazinani Shariati and Yaser Bagheri in Tehran; Oscar Vega Camacho in La Paz and Fried­ erike Habermann who is probably more fellow in struggle than colleague. Special thanks for inspiring discussions and emotional support go to my flatmates Friz, Mart and Sarah; to Regina, Armin, Jürgen, Harry, Josephine and Daniel and to all those I forgot here; to Enno and the BUKO; to my great kids (are you actually reading this book?) and of course to Franziska, whom I hope will always recognize me. This book is dedicated to my parents Seid Hossein Ziai Ardastaninejad and Lisa Rosemarie Ziai Ardastaninejad (born Dänecke), who will probably never read it but made it possible a long time ago. 1 Introduction The discourse of ‘development’ On January 9, 2015, the EU launched the ‘European Year for Development 2015 (EYD 2015)’ and declared it ‘a year dedicated to raising awareness, engag­ ing Europeans everywhere in the EU’s development cooperation and sparking a debate around the motto “Our world, our dignity, our future”’. 1 The press release informs us that the ‘EYD 2015’ was proposed by the European Commission and unanimously adopted by the European Parliament and Council, what the EU International Cooperation and Development Commissioner has to say about it, and what events and creative opportunities for involvement across the mem­ ber states are being prepared – but it does not actually explain what is meant by ‘development’ and ‘development cooperation’. The terms are assumed to be self-evident: everyone knows that they are about something like projects for pov­ erty eradication in Africa, Asia and Latin America. On January 20, 1949 – 66 years earlier – when US President Truman announced a ‘program of development’ for